Weekend away with my wife

Spent a nice weekend away with my wife to celebrate our 5 year wedding anniversary. Most people would just go out for a a nice dinner. We aren't most people.

We spent the week looking over the flight loads and keeping mind of which cities were “doable”. We both have Starwood Preferred Guest American Express Cards....which means we rarely pay for hotel rooms. Very rarely.

Wednesday night we made our final choice, listed on the flight, booked the rental car (nice travel industry discount) and booked our pet sitter. My wife has spent a lot of money on pet sitters....which is why I don't have dogs.

Most of the time we fly the first flight out as there are fewer connecting passengers (so more often light flight loads) and it's the most often missed flight (people sleep in/get stuck in traffic). Friday was no different. The plane was wide open. Could have had first, got our own row in coach.

One odd thing about my wife and I....we are so used too last minute flights/day trips, we never plan much to do. This trip was no different.

With the power of our Android phones (my nifty Nexus One, her T-Mobile G1) we found lots too do...as well as free built in turn by turn navigation. If someone told me 6 years ago that in 2010 I would have a phone with built in GPS turn by turn navigation WITH spoken street names, full Internet Access, Instant Email and more....I would have laughed. Even as a geek I am amazed.

The weekend was fun. We took as risk by taking the last direct flight home. My wife found a backup flight with a stop just in case.

The last flight of the night is always iffy. If the flights are full all day and the last flight is full, then the last flights are a bad idea.

However if the flights during the day are only slightly full, then the last flight of the night is quite doable as many passengers go standby on earlier flights.

When we looked on Wednesday, the last flight of the night had 21 open seats. This afternoon it went as high as 35 open seats.

We listed for first, got coach....somehow another row to ourselves. The flight ended up going out with 6 open seats due to passengers being rerouted. Still glad to go home.

My wife is pregnant and due to deliver in August. The days of her flying non-rev at the drop of a hat are going to be limited soon. She mentioned how hard it's going too be as she has flown somewhere almost every month since I started at my airline back in October 2007. Right now we think her last flight will be next month. Maybe May.